Mary J. Blige Reveals How Pain Creates Art, Her New Tribulations and Love for Hip-Hop (Photos)

Mary J. Blige’s accomplishments in music are what superstar dreams are made of. She’s held her place as the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul for nearly 20 years, she’s won nine Grammys and released six multiplatinum albums. However, Blige still deals with the daily struggle of figuring out her place in life.

Blige recently sat down with V-103’s Frank Ski for an intimate conversation held for a select group of fans at the W Hotel in Atlanta.

Rolling out magazine was on hand as Blige spoke about her new album My Life 2 and how she deals with personal trials. –story by amir shaw and photos by eric black

On how her pain became great music:

“I needed someone to love me. I needed for someone to say they understood me. When I was a kid, no one could hear me. I put all of the agony from the abuse and drugs and I put it on wax. And people loved it because they understood. Just by them listening, it does a lot for me. The thing that is consistent is the pain and the uncomfortable position of going around it or going through it. I choose to go through it with my music.”

On dealing with trials after experiencing success:

“I know trails will come. If I have the world right now, there is still pain, a recession, war and suffering in the world. It can’t be happiness all of the time because the world is not happy all the time. If I have the world, that means I have trials. This isn’t ‘True Hollywood Stories.’ This is real life; it writes itself.”

On why she still loves hip-hop:

“Hip-hop is the foundation. If you listen to the very first record I put out, it was a Biz Markie sample. That was the beginning of what the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul stands for. Anyway, I continue to support it. It has blessed me. I’m not going to run away from it because I have a movie. It saved me.”